Ranger in Exalted Company

Eighteen-year-old French-Canadian Andrew Ranger, who etched his name in the record books at Monterrey last month as the youngest man ever to finish on a Champ Car podium, served further notice of his potential in Saturday's final qualifying session at Cleveland.

He had been mired in the lower reaches of the midfield during morning practice, but shot to prominence in the afternoon after his engineers succeeded in dialing out unwanted oversteer from his Conquest Racing Lola.

A miscue by the team meant he lost his fastest time for exceeding the 15-lap allotment, but his next best effort was still good enough to secure his best starting position to date.

"This morning the car was oversteer, oversteer," reported Ranger in his rapidly improving but still broken English. "But we changed everything about the set-up for qualifying and it was much better.

"Now there's a little bit of understeer which cost me a couple of tenths [of a second], but I'm pretty happy. I'm looking forward to a good race."

Team owner Eric Bachelart had effusive praise for his young charge.

"I'm thrilled with Andrew's performance today and also very proud of the team," he said. "We keep on improving and this is our best qualifying position so far."